Overview of Russian HEU transparency issues

Conference · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:10183265

Kempf, C R ^[1]; Bieniawski, A ^[2]

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1. Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
2. USDOE Office of Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Washington, DC (United States)

The U.S. has signed an agreement with the Russian Federation for the purchase of 500 metric tons of highly-enriched uranium (HEU) taken from dismantled nuclear weapons. The HEU will be blended down to low-enriched uranium and will be transported to the U.S. to be used by fuel fabricators to make fuel for commercial nuclear power plants. Both the U.S. and Russia have been preparing to institute transparency measures to provide assurance that nonproliferation and arms control objectives specified in the agreement are met. This paper provides background information on the original agreement and on subsequent negotiations with the Russians, as well as discussion of technical aspects of developing transparency measures suited to the facilities and processes which are expected to be involved. Transparency has been defined as those agreed-upon measures which build confidence that arms control and non-proliferation objectives shared by the parties are met. Transparency is a departure from exhaustive, detailed arms control verification regimes of past agreements, which were based on a presumption of detecting transgressions as opposed to confirming compliance.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 10183265
• Report Number(s): BNL--49316; CONF-930749--68; ON: DE93040167; IN: SSN-93-16
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

055002
350100
45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
450200
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ARMS CONTROL
DECOMMISSIONING
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS
NONTECHNICAL ASPECTS
NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS AND EXPLOSIVES
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
POLICY, NEGOTIATIONS, AND LEGISLATION
PRODUCTION
RUSSIAN FEDERATION
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
USA